With mails three months apart, news traveled slowly; but as soon as word of this infamous charge reached Salt Lake City, the clerk of the court, Judge Drummond’s clerk, sent a letter by express to the attorney-general, denying under oath the judge’s statements, and attesting the declaration with official seal.  The records, he declared, had been untouched except by official hands, and from the time of the court’s establishment the files had been safe and were then in his personal keeping.  But, before the clerk’s communication had reached its destination, so difficult is it for stately truth to overtake flitting falsehood, the mischief had been done.  Upon the most prejudiced reports utterly unfounded in fact, with a carelessness which even his personal and political friends found no ample means of explaining away, President Buchanan allowed himself to be persuaded that a “Mormon” rebellion existed, and ordered an army of over two thousand men to proceed straightway to Utah to subdue the rebels.  Successors to the governor and other territorial officials were appointed, among whom there was not a single resident of Utah; and the military force was charged with the duty of installing the foreign appointees.

With great dispatch and under cover of secrecy, so that the Utah rebels might be taken by surprise, the army set out on the march.  Before the troops reached the Rocky Mountains, the sworn statement from the clerk of the supreme court of Utah denying the charges made by Judge Drummond became public property; and about the same time men who had come from Utah to New York direct, published over their own signatures a declaration that all was peaceful in and about the settlements of Utah.  The public eye began to twitch, and soon to open wide; the conviction was growing that someone had blundered.  But to retract would be a plain confession of error; blunders must be covered up.

Let us leave the soldiers on their westward march, and ascertain how the news of the projected invasion reached the people of Utah, and what effect the tidings produced.  Certain “Mormon” business agents, operating in Missouri, heard of the hostile movement.  At first they were incredulous, but when the overland mail carrier from the west delivered his pouch and obtained his receipt, but was refused the bag of Utah mail with the postmaster’s statement that he had been ordered to hold all mail for Utah, there seemed no room for doubt.  Two of the Utahns immediately hastened westward.

On the 24th of July, 1857, the people had assembled in celebration of Pioneer Day.  Silver Lake, a mountain gem set amidst the snows and forests and towering peaks of the Cottonwoods, had been selected as a fitting site for the festivities.  The Stars and Stripes streamed above the camp; bands played; choirs sang; there were speeches, and picnics, and prayers.  Experiences were compared as to the journeyings on the plains; stories were told of the